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Court Interventions May Not Be Effective in Preventing Future Intimate Partner (Domestic) Violence

A study that examined the long-term effectiveness of court interventions for a cohort of men arrested for domestic violence
reported that 75 percent of the men reoffended for substance abuse or violence or both, often before the courts had disposed
of an earlier crime. Analyses showed that:

The courts were consistent in sentencing.

To properly evaluate a criminal justice response to domestic violence, abusers' general criminal behavior should be taken
into account.

Men in the study were antisocial, persistently criminal, and engaged in domestic violence as part of their general criminal
activities.

Another study that examined a specialized domestic violence probation program in Rhode Island found that mandatory attendance
at batterer programs and no-contact orders routinely issued at sentencing did not protect the women from further abuse. [2]

This same study found that more than one-third of probationers were arrested for a new domestic violence offense within the
first 2 months, and almost 60 percent were arrested within the first 6 months. Probationers who had the highest re-abuse rates
were those who had committed prior crimes (not just domestic violence) and younger abusers (teenagers and those in their 20s).[3]